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a child's suitability for enrollment at a secondary school or university. Chil–
dren applying for a place at a school are judged on the basis of their parents'
political loyalty , with top marks given for membership of one or both parents
in the CP . Important also are the child's own political activities. Academic
achievement, talent , intelligence are secondary considerations. If a child's
parents have been classified among the less tractable citizens, even an IQ
bordering on genius is of no avail, and the child is condemned to soul-des–
troying menial labor .
Let there be no mistake, this is not the class justice of the postrevolution–
ary period which was aimed at restituting social injustice and providing edu–
cation to the children of the oppressed classes. The children who are now
being refused admission to secondary schools were born to a generation who
had passed through the sifting process ; the "family of the intelligentsia"
origin ought not to be a handicap; on the contrary, itshould indicate the grand–
parents ' blameless class origin . The motive behind this sifting is not the desire
to achieve justice but the desire
to
rule . The rulers have discovered our weak
spot . A man is willing to risk his own fu ture, he can endure a lot himself: loss
of freedom, loss of means of existence , loss of communication with friends .
But few are willing
to
let their children suffer, to deny them the education
theywant and which ranks high in the parents' own hierarchy of values. So the
generation which resolved
to
endure lends itself
to
manipulation in its
children' s interests.
"Why do we not defend ourselves?" others may ask . The answer is: we
do defend ourselves , each on his own behalf and in his own way. We have
been deprived offreedom ofassembly and of the press, the basic weapons of a
cultural community . Our nation , which rose almost from the dead in the last
century , saved itself from Germanization-thanks
to
its teachers and priests;
a nation that arrived at the purifying ideas of the Reformation a hundred years
before the rest of Europe ; a nation whose whole history has been one of resis–
tance to violence, an expression of ethical endeavor ; the nation of Hus,
Comenius, and Masaryk ; this nation is now forcibly deprived of those who
have always been its spokesmen and its fount of ideas: artists, publicists ,
social critics, and scientists . Several generations absorbed in creative endeavor
have been scattered about the world, silenced at home. A nation which dis–
covered , created , and defended ethical and cultural values is now robbed of
the possibility of creating culture and is forced to act in contradiction to its
traditions.
How should we defend ourselves? We have no forum for protest, no
platform . But we do defend ourselves for the time being, at least, by con–
tinuing
to
exist, and through the presence ofpeople likeJiri Muller who know
how to say no . The price we have to pay makes us value certain things, perhaps
